First timers bear the brunt

It must be very unfortunate to be a first timer at anything in the middle of a recession (are we in a recession? Certainly feels like it). First time buyers cannot get credit to buy their first houses and even if they could they couldn’t afford it, first time jobseekers cannot get employed in the jobs they would like because the cutbacks have put paid to many training and apprenticeship schemes and employers only want experienced people. If they are lucky enough or have relatives that may stretch to buying them a car for the first time then they still have to try and insure it and, as anyone who has been in that position will tell you, it can be prohibitively expensive.

Young drivers in this country will typically pay between £500 and £3,000 for their first car, often with the help of parents or grandparents, but unless they can find a way around it will often pay 3 or 4 times the value of the car just to insure it, and then only 3rd party.

Now clearly premiums are loaded against inexperienced drivers and, as we all know, the more accident or incident free driving you have the less premium you have to pay but it must be a complete nightmare to run a car as a young person and that’s before you have even put petrol in it and we all know how expensive that is becoming.

Ironically as car dealers across the land will tell you, many car buyers are looking for small economical cars at present which pushes the price up as demand increases. At the auction a 15 yr old Polo, Fiesta, Peugeot or Corsa can fetch £1,000 or more for the right car, which makes it even harder for young people to control the costs of driving.

I unfortunately do not have any solutions, not being au fait with how insurance premiums are set and why they are so extortionate for some drivers.

Surely with, everything else conspiring against young people at present someone has got to find some answers on how to make life a little more hopeful for them and encourage them to work hard in school and find a good job to help them pay for the things they aspire to and not see them hanging around disillusioned drinking white lighting on a Tuesday night because they are bored (and subsequently drunk) out of their skulls.

As I have a daughter who qualifies to drive in about a year I’m open to any advice or recommendations about how best to insure a car for a 17yr old I am all ears. All I then need to do is get the 3 door 106 in black with big music for under a grand.

Now there’s a challenge!

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